


Nightmares

by Lunar_L



Series: L'âge de L'amour [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chat has started to embrace that Marinette wants him to feel at home at her place, Dream-catcher, Embroidery, F/M, Mama Agreste mention - Freeform, Nightmares, stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-07 03:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14662743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunar_L/pseuds/Lunar_L
Summary: Chat gives Marinette a little look into his childhood





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Written far too quickly with zero proofreading because it is already tomorrow and I am exhausted

“Hey Princess!” Chat shouted as he bounded through her skylight unceremoniously. “What's that?” he asked, ignoring the way her jaw dropped at the way he'd invited himself in without waiting for her approval. It was the first time since he'd started dropping by that he'd done that.

She snapped her jaw shut as she recovered. “Shh!” she scolded him, “My parents are asleep downstairs!” She was not ready to beg forgiveness for waking them before an early start tomorrow.

“Oops,” he said, looking anything but apologetic as he grinned bright enough to rival the sun. He pointed. “What is it though?”

Marinette glanced down at the embroidery hoop he was looking at. On it, she had fitted a piece of cotton which she was half-way through working on. Within the frame she had used brown and grey threads – muted colours to avoid overpowering the pastel blue material – but she had embellished it somewhat with sparkling dark blue and silver thread to highlight details.

It was going to be a summer dress eventually, but first she needed to get an idea for how large this embroidery would be when finished. “It's a dream-catcher,” she told him, “We covered some Native American history the other day in school and I got inspired.”

“Cool,” he said, grabbing an apple from her desk, another thing he'd done without permission. She stared suspiciously. “I used to have a dream-catcher when I was a kid,” he said, taking a bite, “My dad's always been overprotective-” - _bite_ \- “-and I used to hear him talking to himself about things that worried him. I started having dreams where a kid I knew stopped wanting to play with me or that someone would kidnap me and steal me away.” He took several bites from the apple as he finished talking, as if giving Marinette a chance to comment.

“Wow. That's...kinda dark for a kid.”

“It's what my dad panicked about though,” he said with a nonchalant shrug, “Anyway, my maman got me a dream-catcher. I'd been having nightmares for a while then and I was pretty frightened to go to sleep at night. I'd beg them to let me sleep in their bed with them, but maman wanted me to get over the problem instead of hiding. She told me my dream-catcher would catch all my nightmares but let the nice ones through so I shouldn't worry and go to sleep easily from then on.”

Marinette watched him sadly. She deeply regretted that he'd ever had to go through that, but also realised now that his father was probably still the route of all his unhappiness. Looking back, he'd dropped enough comments in front of her as Ladybug that had made her realise his home life was less than stellar. Maybe, even now, his father's worries sometimes worried him too?

In front of her, Chat grinned again but this time his teeth were directed more at the embroidery hoop than her. And, clearly, at his past memories too. “It didn't work. Instead I freaked out that all my nightmares were stuck in the net and that when it filled up they'd either overflow or some very dark and scary creature would appear above my bed to empty it.” He snickered. “It took me a month to admit to maman that the thing scared me. But, to be fair, I was only seven.”

He continued to watch the design, a sad look floating over his face unexpectedly. “I miss her,” he said quietly.

Marinette's brow creased as it dawned on her that Chat had lost his mother and now had a clearly detached but overprotective father. She hated that both the blondes in her life had to suffer such similar fates.

“Do they still scare you?” she asked.

“What?” He'd broken out of his reflection and was watching her wide-eyed.

“Dream-catchers? Do they still scare you? Because if not, I'm sure I could frame this fabric for you.” She witnessed his obvious confusion and decided to elaborate, “You could hang it over your bed or something. For her. But since it's just a picture, no creepy dream-emptiers come with it.”

She grinned when he did, echoing his gentle giggle that followed until she found herself watching a much happier Kitty as he collapsed at the memory of his own ridiculousness and fighting not to join in herself.

 


End file.
